Here are some tidbits from a Q&A between Lexmark executives and financial analysts.

The purpose of the conversation was to discuss company earnings. Executives also discussed future plans to help bring earnings back up — They have been a little low by shareholder standards as of late. Here are some topics covered.

Cartridge Return Program:
Lexmark recently expanded its cartridge return program (or Prebate program). The program, they claim, will offer more choices to consumers. It offers an immediate $4 discount on cartridges you are purchasing if you agree to send them back when they run out of ink. This is Lexmark’s attempt to prevent customers from getting their empty cartridges refilled elsewhere, or recycling them elsewhere. As a safeguard these cartridges come with a chip that will not allow the cartridge to print if it has been refilled rather than returned to Lexmark. Pretty sneaky, Lexmark!

Lexmark also mentioned the possibility of a two tiered cartridge pricing program. This is something they currently do with their laser toner cartridges. Customers have the choice of buying the more expensive “new” cartridge, or a lesser priced remanufactured cartridge that has been remanufactured from cartridges that have been returned through the return program.

Memjet Technology:
When asked about the new Memjet Printer Lexmark executives played down the technology and said they did not see such technology impacting their sales. They gave two reasons:

• The Memjet technology has yet to be commercialized, meaning it has not been prepared to be made available to the general public. Silverbrook Research, the maker of the Memjet, has not released any sort of time line as to when this might happen.
• Lexmark estimates that Memjet printers will be expensive, and not compete in the price category as Lexark does.

Interesting stuff.